by Jennie Brown
“No way! Wait,” I pleaded. “You seriously want to give up now?” They were nuts! I couldn’t believe they would give in to Larriby and greasy Grimeley so fast.
Nobody moved.
We stared at one other, waiting for inspiration to strike. I looked over at Ellie and the huge bookcase situated on the wall behind her. The familiarity of it hit me. “Stand up,” I insisted, jumping forward.
“But I need a little rest,” Ellie complained, looking down at her now paint-chipped nails and frowned.
“Seriously. Stand up,” I demanded, steering Ellie up and away from the bookcase.
I used all my weight to push the chair out of the way.
“Poppy, what are you doing?” Logan asked, giving Sam a strange look.
“The bookcase.” I motioned to them. “Help me slide it, guys,” I said, struggling with it alone.
“Let’s do it,” Sam said while puffing out his chest.
“Step back,” Logan said to me and winked. “We got this.”
Ellie and I giggled together. They were totally trying to be macho boys.
Sam was on one side of the shelf, and Logan on the other. Of course a few pieces of hair had fallen over Logan’s green eyes. But I was beginning to like the whole rugged hair-in-face look he had going on. It was cute.
“On three,” Logan said. “One … two … three.”
With each grunt from the boys, the bookshelf slid farther and farther away from its position against the wall.
And then they saw what was hidden behind it. I gave a knowing smile.
Logan’s eyes bulged out of his head, “Nooooo way!”
“Awesome.”
“I want a hidden compartment in my bedroom,” said Ellie in her typical world-revolves-around-Ellie fashion. I laughed.
I knew then exactly why Miss Maggie assigned that lesson. She wanted me—us—to succeed.
“Check this out.” Logan pointed to the upper-left-hand corner of the built-in shelf where a mini flat-screen television sat.
“Why would she have a TV hidden away in here?”
“Quick, find the remote!” Ellie chirped.
“Really, guys?” Sam sighed, aiming his finger up at the screen. The TV buzzed on. Okay. His powers were so not lame.
“Oh, man.”
“Oh. My. Gosh,” Ellie said dramatically.
From the angle I stood (due to my height), I couldn’t quite make out what was on the screen. I moved to get a better view. And then I saw it.
“Surveillance? Really?”
I jumped on the chair to get a better look, and pushed a few curly strands of red hair from my face. On the screen was what seemed to be a storage shed. In fact, it looked just like the shed my dad has in our back yard where he stores the lawnmower, snowplow thingy, and other tools. Unlike my dad’s, though, this one looked like it had been through World War II. Panels of siding were missing, there was a ginormous hole in the roof, and boards were nailed up over all the windows.
I swallowed hard and gestured to the dilapidated building. “Do you think that Pickle’s in there?”
Sam nodded. “If Old Lady Larriby’s going to hide anything anywhere, this is where it would be,” he said, using his Wednesday power to turn off the TV. “I think that is where all of our stuff is hidden. Why else would crazy Larriby have it under surveillance?” That woman was just plain nuts.
I shrugged and stared at everyone else, hoping someone would make the next call. Not that I minded saving the day or anything.
“Well, let’s go get our stuff,” Sam finally said.
Ellie twisted strands of hair between her fingers. “But we don’t even know where this place is. Plus, it looks kind of scar—”
“Are you forgetting who the veteran P.A. student is?” Sam asked, pointing at his chest. “I know right where it is.” He motioned toward the door. “Follow me.”
Logan’s warm hand grabbed mine as he helped me down and off the chair.
“Thanks,” I muttered quietly, and hoped he wouldn’t see the pink in my cheeks.
We quietly left Headmistress Larriby’s office and were led down a hallway from the brilliant light emanating from Sam’s hand. His power was really coming in handy tonight. No pun intended.
“So, where exactly are we going?” I asked once we silently exited out the back door of the academy and was positive nobody could hear.
Our eyes followed his outstretched arm. “Out there.”
I gulped, unsure if finding our stuff really was worth this.
Sam continued, “To the haunted forest we go.”
Chapter Eighteen
Ellie’s breath came out in short bursts as we hiked through the supposedly haunted forest. I turned to see if she was okay. Her wide eyes gave away just how terrified she really was.
Sure, it was late at night. Plus, there was that rumor about the kid who got lost out here forever (which I totally hoped was just that—a rumor). Add in the fact that this place was once a crazy experimental insane asylum or something like it. Really, if you put the ingredients together, this entire academy was a recipe for haunted creepiness. But I found it to be kind of exciting.
“You don’t actually believe this place is haunted, do you?” Sam teased Ellie.
“Maybe,” she stated meekly.
“Boo!” Logan jumped toward Ellie.
“Ahhhhhhhh!” she shrieked.
I chuckled. How could she not see that coming?
“I can protect you,” Sam bellowed, nudging Logan and me out of the way so he could get to Ellie. His arm awkwardly dangled over her shoulder.
Ellie wiggled away from his grasp. “Um … okay.” She sent me a save me, Poppy kind of look, and I swore I heard her say those words aloud.
“Sam, how much farther do we have to go?” I asked, trying to get his googly eyes off of her.
“It shouldn’t be that far away,” he said, turning toward me.
Ellie wiggled out from under his arm. Thank You, she mouthed, and rolled her eyes at Sam.
Sam’s light guided us on the way. We really would be lost without him.
“Are you doing okay?” Logan asked, throwing his arm around my shoulder.
I smiled. Thank goodness it was too dark for him to see just how big of a smile it was. “I think so,” I said apprehensively. To be perfectly honest, the darkness didn’t really scare me that much. Just as long as Sam gave us some sort of light, I would be fine.
“Guys! I think that I see something over there.” Ellie pointed to a shadowy outline twenty or so yards away. “Can we get some more light?”
A brighter flashlight-like light shot out from Sam’s pointer finger. “No problem.” I’d never, ever seen a Wednesday shoot light that far. It was more than awesome! Why was he even here?
“That’s it! That’s it!” Ellie yelled, and began running, well, more like stumbling toward it. With each step, her black kitten heels let go of the mud and they clicked back against her feet.
As we got closer, I could hear a faint whimpering coming from inside. Pickle, I’m coming.
“We need to find a way in,” Logan said.
Since Sam provided the only light, we all had to stick together. Ellie grasped the hood of my sweatshirt until I was practically choking. “Lighten up on the grip,” I said. She did and then latched on to my arm. I could hear her teeth rattling in my ear.
As we pushed our way through the overgrown bushes and weeds surrounding the base of the building, Pickle’s whines got louder and louder.
I needed to get to her.
After circling the entire dilapidated shed, we realized that unless we had a key to unlock the front padlock over the door, there was no way in.
I looked over to see Logan’s face smashed up against a board. “There’s a hole in this board over here.” He waved us over to him. And then his voice rose in excitement, “I think I see Pickle!”
I shoved him out of the way, probably a l
ittle too hard, and pressed my face up against the musty board. Gross.
“Pickle,” I whisper-yelled.
Her cute little eyes looked through the black wire crate she was held in, and up toward me. From what I could see, there was a bowl of water and food on one side of the crate, and a blanket on the other. Thank goodness she’s not starving, I thought to myself. I knew deep down that Larriby wouldn’t actually hurt her. Next to Pickle was a soccer ball that I assumed was Logan’s, and a black box that probably held a clarinet.
“Do you see my bracelet?” Ellie asked, now hanging on to Logan’s arm for dear life. Sam shot him a death stare.
“I think so,” I said, noticing a small pink box that, by color alone, could only be Ellie’s.
“Girls, stand guard,” Logan commanded, pulling away from Ellie. “Come on, Sam.” He pushed his finger in the hole and squeezed another finger in and around one of the looser boards. “Get the other side,” Logan demanded.
Sam finally moved, stood on the other side of the board, and did the same thing as Logan. Their attempt at pulling off the board didn’t produce the same results as their attempt to move the bookcase in Headmistress Larriby’s office a little while ago.
“Shoot,” Sam said, looking down at his swollen red fingers. “Not gonna happen.”
Logan’s hands looked the same.
“Can’t you just disappear and reappear in there?” Sam asked.
Logan gave him a you-are-such-an-idiot look. “I’m a Friday, not a Tuesday. I don’t teleport, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.” Sam nodded at Logan. “Let’s look for another way in.”
“You mean, you’re just gonna leave us here … alone?” Ellie asked, digging her sharp nails into my arm now.
That was exactly what they meant.
We waited in the pitch-black scariness while Logan and Sam did one more lap around the building.
“Eeep! What was that?” Ellie jumped back and looked down toward her feet. Her purse had fallen. “Uh … oh.” I rolled my eyes at her this time.
“Come on, guys—”
“Shhhh.”
And they were back.
“Looks like this is our only way in,” Logan stated firmly, gesturing toward the loose board over the window. “And it’s not budging for us.”
All sets of eyes were on me.
“What?” I asked.
They still stared. I knew what had to be done, and they were right.
Okay. I guess it was my turn to prove my power. I mean, Ellie showed us all that she could control the use of her power by NOT listening to nostril-man Mr. Grimeley’s mind when retrieving the key code. Thanks to Logan’s Friday power we got into Headmistress Larriby’s office without getting caught by greasy Grimeley. And even though Sam was already pretty much the master of his Wednesday power, we definitely couldn’t have gotten this far without his help.
I thought about how I would spend my summer if we got out of here. Hanging out with Veronica and Pickle, maybe even Ellie. Eating ice cream at Novalicious down the street. Celebrating my birthday. Camping with my mom and dad.
“Ewww. You actually like camping?” Ellie interrupted my thought. “And those gross bugs and stuff. Ick!”
Had she done that four days ago, I would have been annoyed. I smiled this time. “You were doing so well, Ellie.” We laughed together like friends.
I turned back toward the shed. “I can do this,” I said, surprising myself with confidence.
Everyone took four totally obvious, gigantic steps back.
“C’mon guys!” I pleaded. But I guess I couldn’t blame them. After all, they had seen the disastrous results of my Monday power before, even if I had been so much closer to getting it right lately.
Although I tried to keep my mind totally clear, I couldn’t stop thinking about the first accident with Ellie’s headband, spaghetti on Dad’s bald head, Pickle’s brush tangled in my necklaces, Miss Maggie’s water glass crashing to the floor, Logan’s gross stuffing, Ellie’s nose paper cut, the book case, and how my powers had failed with each of those attempts. But then, I thought of Pickle, and how I wanted more than anything else in the world to get her out of this terrible place and get us home for the rest of the summer. More than that, I wanted to show clothes-too-tight Larriby and whomever she was talking to the other day that we could totally do this!
Of course Headmistress Larriby would leave this up to me, I said to myself, thinking back to that first day of Power Academy that seriously felt like forever ago when I made her crash to the floor, and the way she treated us since. I could do this.
I slowly lifted up my arm and pointed to the loose side of the board. Concentrate, Poppy. Concentrate. It was so quiet behind me that I could have sworn that the others weren’t even breathing. The quiet was broken by Pickle’s whimpering, though, and that motivated me to go on.
I focused on one of the screws that held up the two-inch thick wooden plank. I didn’t want it to pull so fast that it shot out and stabbed someone, so I imagined it turning ever so slowly.
Turn, turn, turn, I thought, pointing as hard as I possibly could. And the screw did it. It turned. Yes! One step closer.
My heart began to race a little faster.
“I’m getting it gu—”
There was shuffling behind me. “Poppy, you’d better hurry,” Ellie screeched like a mouse.
Sam took the light away from the board and shined it toward Power Academy. I turned to see two figures quickly making their way toward us.
I didn’t realize Headmistress Larriby could move that fast.
“Poppy, quick,” Logan said, running up to the board, attempting to pull at the corner where the screw was almost out. The wooden plank still wasn’t budging.
Pickle’s whines were getting louder.
Then I focused on the lower corner of the plank. Turn, turn, turn. Again, the screw did what I said. Awesome!
“They’re almost here,” Ellie shouted frantically, and even higher pitched than before.
Logan’s face contorted as he strained to pull at the corner of the board. “Just a little farther, Poppy,” he choked.
There were at least two more nails to go before this thing would budge. I didn’t have time to unscrew them.
“Get back, Logan,” I ordered.
With no questions asked, he jumped behind me.
“Hurry up, Poppy!”
I concentrated harder than I had ever had to before. Come on. Come on. Come on.
The board wasn’t moving.
“They’re getting closer.”
It was totally up to me now. I had to do it. I heard Ellie’s hysterical cries from behind me. Come on. Come on. I concentrated. Just snap! I could hear the footsteps and shuffling getting closer.
“Hurry!”
Come on. Snap! And just when I thought my efforts were useless—Crack. The board snapped in two and wooden fragments flew to the sides.
“Did you just do that?” Logan asked while clearing the rest of the debris from the window.
“I think so,” I said, astonished and super excited that it did completely what I wanted it to. My Monday power worked! But it wasn’t over yet—we didn’t actually have our stuff.
Logan moved back into the brush against the building and got down on one knee. “Get on, now.”
In one swift movement, I jumped on Logan’s knee and hopped through the window—the window that I just made free with my Monday power. Awesome!
Sam dove into the air and did some sort of martial arts roll into a smooth landing on the shed’s floor. Strange, yet impressive.
I could see Mr. Grimeley not too far behind Ellie. “Hurry up, Ellie,” I said while reaching toward her hand.
Ellie’s foot made it to Logan’s knee. Greasy Grimeley was like ten feet away. But right before Ellie was able to push herself off of Logan’s knee, Logan disappeared. The lower half of Ellie’s body was still dangling outside. I heard her
heel plop to the damp ground below.
“Reach,” I said.
Her fingers grabbed on to mine. I pulled as hard as I could, but she wasn’t moving.
“Ewww, ouch,” Ellie whimpered.
“Oh, no, you’re not,” Mr. Grimeley screeched, clutching on to the bottom of her black yoga pants.
It was like a tug-of-war competition between Mr. Grimeley and me, and Ellie was the rope.
I concentrated on Mr. Grimeley’s hand, trying not to be distracted by the nostrils that looked extra large in the moonlight tonight.
I focused harder than ever again. Nose. Nose. Nose.
“Get her!” I heard Larriby yell from behind him.
Nose. Nose. Nose.
And just like that, Mr. Grimeley’s hand shot up and away from Ellie’s pants. His pointer finger went right up his left nostril.
Headmistress Larriby was almost to the shed now. My hand lifted and pointed toward the two nasty adults a few feet away. Ground! And on that command, Mr. Grimeley stumbled backward into Larriby, and they both crashed to the dirt below.
“Wow! Nice work, Poppy,” Ellie said as I pulled her the rest of the way in.
Sam turned his flashlight-finger down toward Headmistress Larriby. Her beet-red cheeks puffed up with every deep inhalation she took.
“I have never,” she paused to catch her breath, “in my life, had anyone,” more heavy breathing, “come this close to leaving my Academy … early!” Mrs. Larriby’s voice boomed angrily, even through all that panting.
The four of us ran to the other side of the shed, as far away from that window as possible.
Sam grabbed his clarinet, Logan his soccer ball, and Ellie found her bracelet. Pickle’s tail wagged like I had never seen it wag before as I tried to unlatch the cage. I fumbled with it.
“Don’t let her get that stupid little dog,” Larriby shouted as Mr. Grimeley climbed through the window. “They can’t—”
Grimeley’s arm raised and I watched as his eyes burned into Pickle. “Noo!” I shouted.
I could barely wrap my mind around everything that happened in the next few seconds. Heck, I don’t think any of us could wrap our minds around it. Suddenly, Logan disappeared and then instantly reappeared behind Mr. Grimeley. I could feel my eyes bulging from their sockets. Did I really just see that? Logan hadn’t just disappeared. He had teleported. Logan, a disappearing Friday had done something only reserved for Tuesdays.